


Worst Intentions

by Strangexunusual



Category: Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Anger, Apologies, Comedy, Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hilarious, Hilarity, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 09:08:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28864557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strangexunusual/pseuds/Strangexunusual
Summary: Betelgeuse always liked to think that he had the best of intentions when it came to helping around the house, but the other members of the Maitland-Deetz family thought the opposite to be true.
Relationships: Beetlejuice & Charles Deetz & Delia Deetz & Lydia Deetz & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland
Kudos: 11





	Worst Intentions

Betelgeuse always liked to think that he had the best of intentions, but the rest of the members of the Maitland-Deetz family thought the opposite to be true. Take the previous week for example: Betelgeuse had meant to help Lydia out with her homework but the square root of 57 was most definitely not Wednesday (Lydia became extremely amused right as soon as he had said that), so it was with some trepidation that the adults of the household allowed Betelgeuse to help them out with the planning for Lydia's 17th birthday party a week later. 

It had started off well; Betelgeuse had only set fire to the house once, but it had been quickly extinguished. But it all really went downhill from there. 

"I hope we're not going to regret this," Barbara had whispered to Adam as they, Charles, and Delia watched Betelgeuse using a cement mixer to mix Lydia's birthday cake rather than an actual mixer. 

"It's just a cake. What could go wrong?" Adam had whispered back. 

"But should we tell him that a cement mixer isn't the right type of mixer to use when it comes to making cake?" Delia had asked, wiping off some excess batter from her face that was thrown in her direction from the intensity and force of the cement mixer. "I still want to know how he managed to get that truck inside the house?"

"He's Betelgeuse," Adam had pointed out. "He probably just summoned it." 

Once they had finished scraping icing off the ceiling as a result of that mishap (they were still finding icing in places where they didn't think icing could even be even a week later), they had made the mistake of putting Betelgeuse in charge of wrapping Lydia's birthday presents and even that went all wrong... when Lydia came downstairs to open them, she'd become greatly amused by the way her best demon friend had wrapped them (the wrapping paper used was black and white striped with ghosts patterned on all over it). And most of Lydia's presents were random household objects such as the toaster and a toilet brush (much to her amusement and her family's annoyance). 

Nobody could bear to complain at him when he was so obviously delighted to have helped out and been apart of something with the rest of the family (all four adults vowed to not tell him when it was their birthday in order to avoid any future mishaps and keep them from happening), but the raging point had been hit for the other five members of the family when Betelgeuse snapped his fingers and replaced the cookies that Barbara, Delia, and Lydia were in the middle of making with a variety of insects and snakes). 

Barbara swiftly turned on her heel to to face the cackling demon, briefly letting go of her usual cheery demeanor. “BETELGEUSE?!” 

He stopped with his cackling, his hair turning a mix of blue and purple as he stared at the furious ghost. Lydia and Delia had also turned and were glaring at the demon, both Charles and Adam rushing in at the exact same time in order to see what the commotion was. 

Barbara stalked towards the demon as he backed away from her. “Why did you do that?” 

“It was just a prank, B-Town,” the demon replied, though that did nothing to calm the raging ghost down. “I’ve been planning it for the past couple days and I thought it was funny.”

“Well I didn’t and I don’t think Lydia or Delia found it to be particularly funny either,” replied Barbara, gesturing a hand out towards the two living females as they nodded along in unison. “Why don’t you go somewhere else and let us clean up this mess and start all over again?!”

Betelgeuse’s hair seemed to turn a shade of grayish white, him teleporting out of the kitchen in a brightened flash of light. Barbara calmed down completely, but the others could tell that she was still furious, Adam floating over and placing a hand on his wife’s back. 

"Do you think you were a bit too hard on him, Barbara?" Delia questioned, flinching at the sound of a door slamming shut with such force. 

"He does seem awfully upset," Adam said, he and the rest of the family exchanging worried glances with one another. 

"And we should perhaps go and check up on him," continued Charles, letting out a quiet sigh. “Wherever he might have gone. Certainly not up to the roof like he usually does any and every time he's upset about something." 

“I guess you’re all right,” Barbara finally spoke up in a calm tone of voice after a few minutes of silence passed, her having gone back to her usual cheery self. “And I think we should do it now. I shouldn’t have yelled at him. Even though he still ruined the cookies that we’re now going to have to make all over again.”

After searching every room in the house and not finding any sign of Betelgeuse, the rest of the family found the saddened demon by himself in the basement, as evidenced by the glow of his now bluish-purple hair. Making their way down into the darkened room and moving over towards him, Adam and Barbara sat down on either side of the demon, Barbara placing a knife on his back. He briefly glanced at her then turned his attention back down towards the concrete floor, closing his eyes. It was pretty clear he wanted to be alone right now, but the rest of the family definitely wasn't going to leave him be. 

"What's wrong, bug?" asked Barbara out of concern, trying to at least get the demon to talk about it.

However, all he said was "I don't want to talk about it. Please just leave me alone." 

The other five glanced at one another, all unsure of what else they were going to do. Lydia suddenly got an amusing idea, getting out that day's homework. "Hey, Beej, I need help with this here problem. I think it's got a weird answer."

"When do I ever give you weird answers to the questions on your homework?" he asked out of confusion, picking his head up (not literally) and glancing over in Lydia's direction. Behind the teenager, all four adults were laughing their heads off (again, not literally). 

"Last week when you told me that the square root of 57 was Wednesday," Lydia responded with an amused huff, yet still managing to sound annoyed. 

"You have a crush on a girl named Wednesday," Betelgeuse was quick to point out. Lydia rolled her eyes slightly then turned her attention back over towards Betelgeuse, whose hair seemed to (although it was faint) be going back to its usual shade of green. 

"True that," she replied with a slight laugh. "I knew what you meant when you said that."

Barbara quickly took the opportunity to again sit herself down on the concrete floor of the basement of the house, with Adam following suit. Then Delia, and finally Charles. The demon looked around the room at the rest of the family, his hair turning completely back to its shade of green. 

"You okay?" the female ghost asked with the rest of the family nodding along in agreement and unison, directing the attention of the demon over towards her. 

"I guess I am just a little.... yeah." He stood up, but stayed standing in that spot. Everyone else did the same, giving the demon equally concerned looks. His hair was now a mix of yellow and green, which an even brighter shade of green showing up right smack dab in the middle of both colors. Barbara and Adam each placed a hand on the demon's back, leading him back upstairs with the Deetzes following closely behind. 

"I guess we can say that we're sorry for yelling at you," Barbara said apologetically as she and Adam gently guided the demon over to a chair in the living room and sat him down. "It was only on instinct." 

"Tis okay," was the demon's response. "It reminded me so much of my mom often yelling at me, I guess I reacted quite similar to how I reacted whenever that happened." 

"Then I guess we're also sorry for reminding you of your mom by yelling at you," Adam spoke up, he and Barbara wrapped their arms around the demon with the Deetzes joining in not too long after. 

Betelgeuse closed his eyes, his hair turning a complete bright shade of yellow as he relaxed in the hug. 


End file.
